The Really Big Numbers Page

(from Chalk Up Another One by S. Harris)

Physical Things

Note: All measurements are in "reasonable units". I'm just trying to give a rough idea of magnitudes. For example, length measurements are in a units of about feet/meters/miles/kilometers... when I'm talking about such large magnitudes I really don't care if I'm off by a factor of a million or so.

10¹⁰

• The distance light travels in a year
• The number of stars in our galaxy
• The number of galaxies
• Time since the big bang
• Amount of money the US Government spends each year

10²⁰

• The total number of stars
• The number of atoms in about ten grams of carbon
• Mass of the Earth
• Diameter of the Milky Way (10²¹)
• Diameter of the Universe (10²⁶)

10³⁰

• Probale life of a proton (greater than this)
• Mass of the Sun

10⁴⁰

• Ratio of electromagnetic and gravitational force between two electrons
• Mass of the Milky Way

10⁵⁰

• Mass of the Universe

10⁶⁰

• Time it would take a black hole a few times the mass of our sun to evaporate

10⁸⁰

• The number of particles in the observable universe

Mathematical Things

10⁶⁷

Total number of ways of arranging 52 cards

10^40,000

Chance of a monkey typing Hamlet by hitting random keys

10^350,000

This number has to do with the odd Goldback conjecture. The odd conjecture says every odd number >=9 can be expressed as the sum of three odd primes. (For example 15=3+5+7.) So far, no one has been able to prove it. But in 1937 Vinogradov proved that every number greater than this number on the order of 10^350,000 is expressible as the sum of three odd primes. If someone proves the odd conjecture is true, I will have to take this number off the really big numbers page.

2^1,398,269-1 (about 10^420,000)

Largest prime as of Jan 1997

10¹⁰¹⁰³⁴

This number has to do with the theory of the distribution of primes (although I don't know what). It is called Skewe's number. The book I got it from claims it is the largest number ever to appear in a math proof. Does anyone know a larger one?

Back To Playful Thoughts

Back To Varatek